Ok, now imagine your current complete quail feed averages 23% protein, 3.4% fat (this is long enough as is, I'm not even going to get into all the other stuff). Now imagine you follow the thumb rule and add treats in the form of dried mealworms at 10% of the weight of the feed you are offering.
Now there's some disagreement. Birds are reasonably good (again, Cx excepted, and individuals vary) at balancing their energy intake, ALL ELSE BEING EQUAL (important caveat). Birds are also rather good at balancing their protein intake (ALL ELSE BEING EQUAL). Sadly, they are pretty bad at balancing for an appropiriate amino acid profile - which is much more important than crude protein alone. They show similar ability to self regulate Calcium intake, and a few other things. But in this case, it doesn't help - there isn't broad enough selection to allow a bird to permit a bird to balance its own intakes.
Itr will either eat all the complete feed and all the mealworms, all the mealworms and some of the complete feed, or something inbetween. That provides our ranges.
A bird which eats 9 parts feed, 1 part mealworms has increased iots average protein intake from 23% of the diet to 25.2%, a very tiny relative improvement. On the other hand, its fat intake has gone from 3.4% of the diet to 5.56% of the diet - a very substantial increase in fat intake (and daily energy). The bird eating the regular aration of feed PLUS 1/10th the ration in mealworms is 25%/5.36% respectively - less average fat (though still a significant amount over desired) and increased its total calory intake singificantly.
As it turns out, birds don't deposit intramuscular fat well. They aren't like us. Anyone who has eaten bird and paid any attention at all knows most of the subcutaneous fat is deposited at the keel, and the inner thigh. Anyone who has butchered their own bird knows they deposit fat a third place - in the inner organ cavity, where it can compress the heart and be deposited in the liver, kidneys, etc. Where fat nodules grow suifficiently large in the liver, it becomes friable (a fancy word for "crumbly"). Crumbly livers result in ruptured blood vessels, which then leak into the inner organ cavity. Inchickens, this is called FLHS Fatty Liver Hemorragic Syndrome, and contributes to sudden poultry death. By compressing the heart, they result in reduced blood flow - higher incidence of frost bite in extremities (comb, toes, etc), greater damage during processing, and more rarely, sudden heart failure - its the poultry equivalent of COPD.
Now that's not to say fat is all bad, or that you can't deliberately design a balanced feed with a higher average fat level - but you do so by cutting carbs to reduce the total mKe (metabolizable kinetic energy) to the desired target. For the typical at home poultry owner, they have no ability to adjust the mKe of their feed, so they should be concerned with adding significant amounts of fat to the diet due to the potential for netaive health consequences.
just as you would not offer yourself a "treat" of 4-6 oz of bacon each day w/o expecting health consequences over the long term, you shold not offer your birds significan amounts of dried mealworms, Boss, etc each day unless you have designed their diet around that (in which case, its part of a recipe for a complete feed, not a treat)
and that leads me to my next post, making your own feed.
Now there's some disagreement. Birds are reasonably good (again, Cx excepted, and individuals vary) at balancing their energy intake, ALL ELSE BEING EQUAL (important caveat). Birds are also rather good at balancing their protein intake (ALL ELSE BEING EQUAL). Sadly, they are pretty bad at balancing for an appropiriate amino acid profile - which is much more important than crude protein alone. They show similar ability to self regulate Calcium intake, and a few other things. But in this case, it doesn't help - there isn't broad enough selection to allow a bird to permit a bird to balance its own intakes.
Itr will either eat all the complete feed and all the mealworms, all the mealworms and some of the complete feed, or something inbetween. That provides our ranges.
A bird which eats 9 parts feed, 1 part mealworms has increased iots average protein intake from 23% of the diet to 25.2%, a very tiny relative improvement. On the other hand, its fat intake has gone from 3.4% of the diet to 5.56% of the diet - a very substantial increase in fat intake (and daily energy). The bird eating the regular aration of feed PLUS 1/10th the ration in mealworms is 25%/5.36% respectively - less average fat (though still a significant amount over desired) and increased its total calory intake singificantly.
As it turns out, birds don't deposit intramuscular fat well. They aren't like us. Anyone who has eaten bird and paid any attention at all knows most of the subcutaneous fat is deposited at the keel, and the inner thigh. Anyone who has butchered their own bird knows they deposit fat a third place - in the inner organ cavity, where it can compress the heart and be deposited in the liver, kidneys, etc. Where fat nodules grow suifficiently large in the liver, it becomes friable (a fancy word for "crumbly"). Crumbly livers result in ruptured blood vessels, which then leak into the inner organ cavity. Inchickens, this is called FLHS Fatty Liver Hemorragic Syndrome, and contributes to sudden poultry death. By compressing the heart, they result in reduced blood flow - higher incidence of frost bite in extremities (comb, toes, etc), greater damage during processing, and more rarely, sudden heart failure - its the poultry equivalent of COPD.
Now that's not to say fat is all bad, or that you can't deliberately design a balanced feed with a higher average fat level - but you do so by cutting carbs to reduce the total mKe (metabolizable kinetic energy) to the desired target. For the typical at home poultry owner, they have no ability to adjust the mKe of their feed, so they should be concerned with adding significant amounts of fat to the diet due to the potential for netaive health consequences.
just as you would not offer yourself a "treat" of 4-6 oz of bacon each day w/o expecting health consequences over the long term, you shold not offer your birds significan amounts of dried mealworms, Boss, etc each day unless you have designed their diet around that (in which case, its part of a recipe for a complete feed, not a treat)
and that leads me to my next post, making your own feed.
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